A formerly well-connected GOP donor convicted of giving teenage girls gifts, alcohol and money in exchange for sex was sentenced Wednesday to 21 years in prison on sex trafficking charges.
Removed by mod
I don’t see it as actually working. The attempts to smear LGBTQ+ people as groomers only resonate with revolting bigots who want to believe that shit anyway. Everyone else seems to be recoiling from it in horror, especially the younger generations.
Removed by mod
The difference is that the Left would have to stoop to their level to be effective at this game. It’s the same reason I think we’re ineffective at pushing back on rightwing violence. Only a handful of us are willing to commit violence.
While I support nazi-punchers, I myself do not punch nazis. I’d like to think I would, but I honestly wouldn’t unless I feared for my safety. And for those who do it to protect the safety of marginalized groups, I applaud.
Removed by mod
What I was trying to get at is that the younger generations don’t seem to be as susceptible to it, but I see your point. We need to work our asses off to make the next election an overwhelming rejection of the hateful shitheads pushing this crap.
Removed by mod
About 48 percent of Gen Z voters identify as a person of color, while the boomers they’re replacing in the electorate are 72 percent White. Gen Z voters are on track to be the most educated group in our history, and the majority of college graduates are now female. Because voting participation correlates positively with education, expect women to speak with a bigger voice in our coming elections. Gen Z voters are much more likely to cite gender fluidity as a value, and they list racism among their greatest concerns. Further, they are the least religious generation in our history.
Speak for yourself. As a trans person, I stopped using Instagram entirely because it got to a point where every top level comment, regardless of the subject matter, was a transphobic one (even ones not even REMOTELY related to LGBTQ+ issues).
It was never like this before the recent GOP push in anti-queer rhetoric. It’s the worst it’s been in my life, tbh. Worse than when my peers used to casually call things “gay” as an insult. Because this time, the rhetoric is genocidal.
Share this with those in denial: Who is really committing crimes against children?
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Partly because the people supporting them are okay with this. Because it’s their people doing it and their people are going to hurt the right people.
You can’t logic someone out of a position they didn’t logic themselves into.
Or look at it another way: donate your way into GOP so that your crimes get overlooked.
Conservatives - always be projecting
Gaslight
Obstruct
Project
What a creepy looking guy. Also, what a creepy attitude:
“I take a lot of offense to the government and court’s notion that I perjured myself in this trial. … Grooming behavior is the word you used,” he said. “If that’s the case, then I suppose anyone who gives someone a gift, whether it be a cheap gift or a million dollars, is grooming their companion for sex. OK? If that’s the standard that we’re going to apply, then I don’t know how there’s any standard to apply.”
No remorse.
Yes, lets just skip over the minor and sex part of the whole thing.
not a drag queen
But his arrest fueled outrage among party activists.
TBF, the sun coming up in the morning fuels outrage among GOP activists.
deleted by creator
This is the best summary I could come up with:
They likened Lazzaro to financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested in 2019 on federal charges accusing him of paying underage girls for massages and then abusing them at his homes in Florida and New York.
Lazzaro’s indictment in 2021 touched off a political firestorm that led to the downfall of Jennifer Carnahan as chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.
Prosecutors argued during his trial that Lazzaro enlisted Castro Medina, who he initially paid for sex, to recruit other teenagers — preferably minors — who were white, small, vulnerable or “broken.” He often sent cars to take the girls to his luxury penthouse condo at the Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, they said.
Lazzaro also helped run the campaign of Republican Lacy Johnson, who failed to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, in 2020.
Several recipients quickly donated those contributions to charity after the charges became public, including U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, of Minnesota, who received $15,600 but suffered no repercussions.
The government put his net worth in a bond report at more than $2 million but said its calculations didn’t include his “extensive” but hard-to-trace cryptocurrency holdings.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Pedocon theory is a theory in the same way the theory of gravity is.
Glad he is going to prison.
This guy’s face is unsettling. His lips are the color of worms that die in a puddle.
Who’s protecting the children from the GOP?
My love for you is like a truck, Lazzaro
Would you like some making f*ck, Lazzaro
My love for you is like a rock, Lazzaro
Don’t suck any dicks on your way to prison!
Hopefully someone sex trafficks his butthole in prison for the next 21 years!
That doesn’t sound like the trafficking I think of. Anyone know the legal definition in this case? Still a pos of course but doesn’t sound like he’s like selling them as sex slaves… Just statutory prostitutes. In any case, fuck im
“Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons, is a crime that involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or services, or to engage in commercial sex acts.”
Seems like this falls under coercing.
Got it thanks for the clarification
https://www.justice.gov/humantrafficking
That gives a nice quick breakdown/definition of trafficking.
